Scientists Identify Microbe That Could Help Degrade Polyurethane-Based Plastics (phys.org) 21
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: German researchers report in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology that they have identified and characterized a strain of bacteria capable of degrading some of the chemical building blocks of polyurethane. The team out of Germany managed to isolate a bacterium, Pseudomonas sp. TDA1, from a site rich in brittle plastic waste that shows promise in attacking some of the chemical bonds that make up polyurethane plastics. The researchers performed a genomic analysis to identify the degradation pathways at work. They made preliminary discoveries about the factors that help the microbe metabolize certain chemical compounds in plastic for energy. They also conducted other analyses and experiments to understand the bacterium's capabilities.
This particular strain is part of a group of bacteria that are well-known for their tolerance of toxic organic compounds and other forms of stress, according to Dr. Christian Eberlein with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ. He is a co-author on the paper who coordinated and supervised the work. "That trait is also named solvent-tolerance and is one form of extremophilic microorganisms," he said. In addition to polyurethane, the P4SB consortium, which includes the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, is also testing the efficacy of microbes to degrade plastics made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is widely used in plastic water bottles.
This particular strain is part of a group of bacteria that are well-known for their tolerance of toxic organic compounds and other forms of stress, according to Dr. Christian Eberlein with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ. He is a co-author on the paper who coordinated and supervised the work. "That trait is also named solvent-tolerance and is one form of extremophilic microorganisms," he said. In addition to polyurethane, the P4SB consortium, which includes the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, is also testing the efficacy of microbes to degrade plastics made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is widely used in plastic water bottles.
Wait till this sucker starts community spreading (Score:1)
Let Me Explain Why that is Insane (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
They're also very carbon heavy to transform, transport and recycle or destroy. People don't think about how light and little amount of product plastic bags are vs paper or other alternatives.
1000 plastic bags weigh 5kg and thus cost about 0.3g of CO2 to move 1 km and takes ~28g to produce. Let's say you need to go 100km from the factory, that's ~60g
1000 paper bags weigh 50kg and will cost about 3g of CO2 to move 1 km. Even if you can source bags locally at half the distance of your plastic bags and you clai
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Burying in the earth has nothing to do with paper bags having zero CO2 footprint, being produced from trees which took CO2 from air does.
As well as all the other containers which were used for centuries and millenia without anthropomorphic CO2 escalation of latest 2 centuries.
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Plastic comes from oil, which also comes from trees which took CO2 from the air. They just did it hundreds of millions of years ago. It's not considered carbon neutral because the carbon was buried and sequestered, before we dug it up. So yes, being buried in the earth is the main distinction here. If you bury the plastic underground again, you've put the carbon back
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Wood, iron, natural rubber, sisal rope, leather things: all of these would degrade, automatically.
And they have their application. They are not universally applicable, which is why (and other reasons) we came up with plastic. Now we are learning that the way we use plastic is not that great for the environment, so either we learn to reuse or recycle plastic better or we come up with alternatives that are as good as plastic (for the cases where we use plastic) but that are also easier to degrade.
We will get there.
It's a tradgedy of the commons. (Score:2)
We already have plenty of materials that degraded, but we intentionally made them not degrade!
Unfortunately, humanity has been very irresponsible. Instead of recognizing that such a material shouldn't be used for single-use items we chose to ignore the consequences in favor of profits. The price of cleaning up and disposing of or recycling plastic has been wholly externalized. As a result we have oceans full of tiny bits of plastic.
This isn't insane, it's necessary.
Have they not read Ringworld? (Score:2, Informative)
... have identified and characterized a strain of bacteria capable of degrading some of the chemical building blocks of polyurethane ...
Have they not read Ringworld?
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Have they not read Ringworld?
Or _Mutant 59: The Plastic-Eaters_?
The latter, though less famous, is on exactly this subject.
It had the bugs working at unreasonably hight speeds. For instance: one scene has an airplane in-fight first have the seats and interior fittings disolve into goo, then go down. But it's hard to make it an exciting emergency when you're talking "Once this gets around, plastic buried in a dump might rot over a few decades."
USE and UF wire might be interesting. (Score:2)
But it's hard to make it an exciting emergency when you're talking "Once this gets around, plastic buried in a dump might rot over a few decades."
Of course for USE (Underground Service Entrance) and UF (Underground Feeded) wiring, things could get interesting.
Those classes of wire are used, respectively, for feeding power to a house and running power from a house to an outdoor light, appliance, outlet, outbuilding, etc.. They're designed for being directly buried (18" or more down, zigzagged slightly in a
Typo (Score:2)
UF = Underground Feed
Rule 35 (Score:2)
If it exists, something will eat it.
What could go wrong? (Score:1)
Please see Mutant 59 the Plastic Eaters (Score:1)
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I was lookiing for this post. I read the book as a teenager and it introduced me to the idea that microbiology could do a lot more than brew beer or make vaccines. This has come to pass as the future unicorn industry is going to be built around it rather than the wave of electronics that I surfed on in my lifetime. An interesting summary of the book here: https://fantasiesofpossibility... [wordpress.com]
A better solution (Score:1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
With high pressure, some water, heat, and centrifuge, you get a far better output.
What's left really is crap.
This is one of those inventions videos that you can't help wondering why it doesn't seem to have made it to the mainstream?
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How is turning it into an airborne pollutant even a solution?
Recent evolution? (Score:2)
I'm assuming this is something that recently evolved in this bacterium, since plastic has only been around for the blink of an eye, in geological terms. Very cool. Life will do whatever it takes.
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Indeed, especially if you see that for coal it took 60 million year before bacteria and fungi could metabolize the lignine that makes up wood and the carbon in coal.
One theory states that about 360 million years ago, some plants evolved the ability to produce lignin, a complex polymer that made their cellulose stems much harder and more woody. Thus, the first trees evolved. But bacteria and fungus did not immediately evolve the ability to decompose lignin, so the wood did not fully decay but became buried under sediment, eventually turning into coal. About 300 million years ago, mushrooms and other fungi developed this ability, ending the main coal-formation period of earth's history.
I guess either we have much more biodiversity then 300 million years ago and more advanced mechanisms by which microorganisms evolve, either plastics weren't so hard or impossible as previously imagined, either a combination of both. Not saying we should just go on trashing plastics around tho.. It always amazes me how such high-quality precisio
Plastic is such an energy-rich food... (Score:2)